Aid team flies gravely injured baby from cyclone-hit Niue

The first emergency aid and medical teams reached cyclone-devastated Niue yesterday, and witnesses said some villages had "virtually disappeared".

An Australian medical team arrived just in time to help save a toddler who suffered serious head injuries when his home collapsed in the main town of Alofi, killing his mother.

Reports from the island said 200 people, out of a population of about 2000, were homeless.

Niue's only hospital was among the buildings destroyed when tropical cyclone Heta, described by locals as the worst in memory, battered the tiny South Pacific island with winds of about 300 kmh on Monday.

Niue's high commissioner to New Zealand, Hima Takelesi, described Heta as the mother of all cyclones, awesome and horrifying. "The village of Alofi South has virtually disappeared from the face of the Earth," he told Radio New Zealand from the island.

The first air force relief flight arrived yesterday, carrying emergency equipment and medical supplies. Also on board were Niue's Premier, Young Vivian, aid agency personnel and a three-person medical team.

The island's two doctors, working out of a makeshift hospital, had nearly run out of oxygen for 19-month-old Daniel Alec when the first air ambulance arrived yesterday morning.

The medical director of the NSW newborn and pediatric Emergency Transport Service, Andrew Berry, said the toddler had been hand ventilated for 10 hours when the Sydney emergency medical team arrived. "They'd nearly run out of oxygen," Dr Berry said.

The boy, who was stabilised before being flown to Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital, where he is in a stable condition, was accompanied by his grandmother.

Niue's coastal side suffered the most damage from the huge waves whipped up by Heta.

"The houses on the coastal side were just wiped out, destroyed. There's only basements standing," said Niue government secretary, Sisilia Talagi.

She said at least 20 families lost everything and people on the island were still reeling from the shock.

"We woke up to a scene of so much devastation, it was just unbelievable. Cyclone Heta was just so fast, furious and ruthless."

Communication remained a serious problem, with the island's only satellite dish destroyed during the cyclone.

The clean-up was continuing on the nearby islands of Samoa, American Samoa and parts of Tonga, which were battered by Heta earlier in the week.